VA Black Legislative Caucus rallies against Senate redistricting plan

RICHMOND – Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, said GOP lawmakers efforts to redraw Senate voting districts to their advantage and reallocate how electoral votes are allocated in presidential elections are the results of them being "sore losers" over President Barack Obama winning Virginia in November.

Locke told a crowd of roughly 200 people at Virginia Legislative Black Caucus on the Capitol grounds Tuesday that after Republican efforts to impose stricter voter identification laws last year "backfired" GOP lawmakers are trying again to rig the system in their favor.

"In 2013 the sore losers have decided that if we can't win an election through the established system then we need to impose further restrictions," said Locke, who heads the 18-member caucus. "(They) have decided to ignore the will of the people and undermine the political process."

Speakers at the rally spoke on the gamut of issues from women's rights to the expansion of Medicare in the commonwealth under the federal Affordable Care Act, much of the focus was on voting rights – especially last week's redistricting bomb dropped on unexpecting Senate Democrats by their GOP colleagues.

Senate Republicans used the absence of Sen. Henry Marsh, D-Richmond, - a Virginia civil rights icon who had taken the day off to attend Obama's inauguration in Washington - to push a new map of Senate districts drawn to their distinct political advantage through the evenly-divided chamber.

GOP leaders said the new map was needed to provide for a sixth minority-majority district in line with the federal 1965 Voting Rights Act.

He said what the redistricting measure actually limits black voting power by lumping them in a small number of heavily black districts, while limiting their ability to influence the vote in other districts.

McEachin said this was the definition of "packing," which isn't allowed under the Voting Rights Act.

"(They said) 'What? We're limiting your ability to influence other elections in other places? Well never you mind that because you got yourselves a sixth Senate district, and you're supposed to be happy,' " McEachin said. "Well excuse me if we call that plantation politics."

On Tuesday the House of Delegates again put off taking up the Senate redistricting plan.

Locke urged the crowd at the rally to contact lawmakers and voice their concerns, making reference to comments made by GOP presidential Mitt Romney in during the campaign where he said 47 percent of Americans would automatically vote for Obama because they don't pay taxes and are dependent on government programs.

"Your voices need to be heard," Locke said. "Let the men and women who would render you irrelevant know that the 47 percent is a powerful force that will not allow them to trample over our rights."

Hampton University student Ronell Chatmon came to Richmond from the Peninsula with a bus load of fellow students to attend the rally.

He said he took Locke's words to heart and felt it was time for him and his fellow students to try and make a difference.

"We will come to (the Capitol) as often as possible to make our voices heard," he said.